Son of Metis
by heavyneos
Summary: The Adama family tree has another branch and this one is a doozy
1. Chapter 1

Jack Adama was a genius, when he was a boy while his class was reading the magic key adventures he was reading advanced applied physics, he completed high school at the tender age of seven and collage at thirteen, he even managed to go through several doctorates in engineering, chemistry, advanced robotics, physics, computer programming, electrical engineering and several others that marked him out at the greatest mind of his age, he was fifteen when his cousin Lee Adama started the academy and became a viper pilot, he never admitted it but Lee was his hero the dashing viper jockey who scored the highest in the academy since his uncle Bill, people called him the boy genius but he didn't care for that all he wanted to do was fly vipers like his hero, and when he was old enough eighteen he would join the academy. That's what he told everyone who asked him what he wanted to be, all the schooling had been at best a mild distraction for what he really wanted to do, after all you not a real man unless you become a viper pilot that's what his father Patrick Adama had always told him,

His father was a pilot at the end of the war and was deep in his older brother's shadow but never let that get to him, he had earned everything he had achieved his wings and his rank of captain, he had served proudly on the Battlestar Pegasus under the old war dagget Horatio Cain and had an impressive kill total with his squadron the silver spurs, but not many people knew of Patrick 'Crow' Adama, it was the proudest moment of his life when Jack told him he was joining the colonial military as a viper pilot, he could see the glimmer of pride in his father's eyes. The entrance exams were easy and took him a few minutes, but the point of the exam was to find what field of the military they could put you in, and his exam firmly placed him in colonial R&D but he managed to work out a compromise, he would train as a viper pilot and if he is successfully graduates he will complete one tour on a Battlestar which was negotiated to is just over one year.

So he began his education as a viper pilot completing all of the theory in the first few weeks, leaving him almost two years of total instruction on the viper, it also left him time to fiddle with things and design stuff, his instructor on vipers was one Cap Thomas 'Madman' Malone, he trained in the old Mk4 Viper, it was the first to have a combat computer and controls networked together after the Cylon war and the only viper that you could disconnect the network with a two switch combination, Cap Malone was of the old school like much of the fleets old guard and he preferred a fighter that could disconnect from its dangerous networks in case of an emergency or a Cylon hack, and Jack agreed, the Cylons were the greatest threat that the colonies had ever faced and it was foolish to believe that they were gone for good, and there skill with computers put any human to shame, but he had heard that an up and coming 'genius' named Gaius Baltar was designing a so called unhackable computer, now that brought out chuckles in him when he heard, and when asked by his peers and instructors why he was laughing he explained that there's no such thing as unhackable and if Baltar was such a genius he should know that, once he graduated he was placed on the Battlestar Atlantia and was flying with the Grimm squadron under the C.A.G or Commander Air Group Peter 'snake' Robertson, he met up with his cousin Lee who said his younger cousin Zak had said that he wanted to join the fleet, that brought a smile to him as Zak was a good kid and he though how great it was that all three Adama boys would be in the fleet tearing around the stars.

Then all too quickly his tour was up and he was reassigned to colonial fleet R&D which was an adjustment, being back on Caprica and his promotion from Lieutenant to Captain was a little overwhelming and took some time to adjust, but once he had he was in his element designing weapons and other technologies that the colonies could use if a war broke out, but one of his big breakthrough's was something that was thought to be completely imposable a jump drive small enough to fit on a viper, it brought a whole new element to fighter engagements and the fleet big wigs loved it and were going to install it on the proposed viper Mk8, and he had already manufactured a hundred units for testing , with this discovery he was promoted to the rank of Colonel and sent over to the very secretive R&D section Black.

(Raptor enroot to section black)

Jack was wearing his new fleet blues and they were uncomfortable as all frak, the collar felt like it was chocking him when he sat and rubbing when he walked but he needed it for his new rank, the fleet blues for a Captain were slightly but noticeably different around the cuffs and collar, the Captain's had a thicker silver bands and the piping was also a little thicker on the breast of the tunic along with silver instead of golden buttons. He had polished his golden wings to a perfect shine as well as his new diamond rank insignia, the patches of darker blue on the shoulders where the ship patches would be was left blank as he had not been assigned to a battlestar for a while. Conditions in a raptor were as expected cramped but not so much that you felt claustrophobic.

"Sir" said the pilot as she turned to face him she was dark skinned and very pretty with her black hair tied back and platted "we are approaching the coordinates given"

Jack nodded and came forward sitting himself in the co-pilot seat he checked the coordinates with his book making sure that they were all correct before he turned to look at her and nodded again

"Send the communication LT" as he handed her a sealed envelope, it was a simple white envelope with the colonial naval seal on the face in gold, she broke the seal and withdrew a card she read it then went back to the E.C.O position and transmitted the info on the card then came forward with it and handed it to him, at which point he pulled out a Zippo lighter and burnt the card until only ashes remained. They sat there for about an hour until the D.R.A.D.I.S beeped with an incoming signal.

Then everything went red as alert status began to blare the incoming signal was a blaring red and identified a Hades class Cylon Basestar, Jacks blood ran cold and he immediately began to run through evasion scenarios, before he knew it his hands were already a blur on the computer panel entering in coordinates and at the same time activating missiles and preparing to launch, he set the jump coordinates to above the Basestar at the blind spot discovered by his uncle during the war, he immediately dipped the nose of the raptor so the missile pods would fire down on the crest of the ship he was about to hit the fire button when he heard a the telltale click of a gun being cocked.

"That's far enough Colonel" Jack immediately stopped his right hand hovering a few centimetres above the fire button he couldn't defend himself at this angle and he didn't dare move to switch hands "you wouldn't want to damage anything now would you"

"I'm fairly sure I would" he said looking her in the eyes they were cold he noted that she seemed ready to kill him if necessary, but even a miss could spell his doom, he had forgotten to put his helmet on and he hadn't bucked himself into the seat "or would your tin plated friends take exception to that"

"This is not what you think" she said trying to placate him

"And what am I thinking traitor" he felt his lip curl up into a sinister sneer, just like his father's when he was pissed, his eyes burned into hers he was willing to die here

The com. Link beeped and a voice came over.

"Lieutenant Grayson what the frak is going on" the voice sounded old very old and not very amused, she moved her left hand to the comm. button and pressed to receive

"We have a situation here sir" she said licking her lips slightly "Col Adama has primed the missiles to fire on Bounty bace"

"Adama I am ordering you to stand down now" the voice came again

"By whose authority do you presume to give me orders Cylon?" came his reply full of venom and rage; there was no reply for a moment

"Authorisation code Delta, Zulu, 485, Epsilon Theta 2" Jacks mind raced then came to the answer

"Admiral Cain is dead and has been for the last two years"

"Don't do it sir" came the Lt's voice as his hand drifted slightly closer to the button

"You shoot me traitor and my hand falls forward hits the button and these twelve nukes launch, but these aren't your normal every day nukes I designed these myself, these have a uranium tip shaped charge that will force the full power of the explosion into that Basestar instead of on the armour" he saw her eyes widen slightly "I see you know what that means each one of these missiles are ship busters by themselves but all twelve that is a recipe for ruination"

"Col Adama what did your Father ever tell you of the mission to liberate Tauron"

"Yes"

"Flip Six three hole" Jack hesitated for a second that was the code that he had told his father in a privet meeting encase the Cylons broke the fleet codes again so that he would know that the signal came from him, he didn't tell a soul as each CAG had their own code from the commander.

"Aye aye sir standing down now" Jack raised his hands in surrender the Lt moved to disarm the missiles and bring the ship to the landing bay.

Jack left the ship with his hands up the Lt at his back waiting for them was the supposedly dead Admiral Cain. He shook his head at Jack before taking him to his office, it was a vast room covered in books and antiquated weapons from flintlock to modern hand cannons. His desk had some papers scattered around it and was a dark oak wood he sat behind it and into a leather chair.

"I don't begrudge what you did Colonel in fact I saw shades of your father and uncle in it" he said as he leant back in his chair "this won't go into your vault as it was my mistake not yours"

"Yes sir"

"I've been reading over your design schematics for these..." he paused and looked down at the paper in front of him "inertia dampeners and structural integrity shields, its ingenious stuff and will allow if correct extreme manoeuvring at high speeds for capital ships"

"Yes sir" he had written that proposal several years ago and it was shot down by conventional scientists as a fantasy

"I also liked the designs for the plasma cannon energy weapons"

Those were also thrown away as the science fiction fantasy of child.

"Yes sir"

At this point Cain looked up

"Is that all you can say"

"No sir"

"This is going to be a very one sided conversation if all you can say is yes or no son"

"What can I say sir, these designs were thrown out as fantasy by the scientific community"

"But not be the fleet son" said Cain as he got up and walked around the desk sitting on the edge with his arms crossed a slight smile on his face "my gods boy these designs could make us the most powerful navy in the known galaxy, the Cylon's would even dream of attacking us"

Jack nodded but said nothing

"And I want you to build them" Jack snapped to attention and looked at the older Admiral in the face

"What" he said in astonishment

"I want you to build these designs prototypes and prove that they work, prove the critics wrong"

That got Jack in the heart; he hated being told something was imposable or wrong it galled him that the scientist in the colonies couldn't see that he was right. It felt like a personal attack on him and his intelligence.

"Very well sir I will prove that they work"

"Good"

()

Over the next month Jack built the designs but realised that they would need more power than the tylium reactors could produce, and forced Jack to design a power core that could provide the vast amounts of energy needed, so he went through the experimental power cores that the R&D had already built or were designing, there were three possibilities the first was a fusion reactor, but that would take up too much room and it wasn't powerful enough to run both the engines and the weapons, the next was an experimental matter antimatter core ,it would provide enough energy but they were having problems stabilising the reactor and the last was an ion power core that was just in the drawing board faze.

He went to the Admiral and had the M/AM reactor brought under his umbrella, it took months to get the core stabilised but using crystallised tylium they had managed to have the core relatively stable until they found a type of crystal that could manage the power core and allow them to reach the full potential.

The first test of the weapons with the new power core was phenomenal, in two rounds the plasma cannons blasted through an asteroid half a mile wide, atomizing it and fusing the several components, but it was easily fixed by turning down the power it meant more voles but it kept the weapons from frying themselves. The admiral was ecstatic and with the new power core the integrity shields and the inertia dampeners became a reality within two years and one more thing came about actual deflector energy shields, strong enough to take multiple nuclear missile strikes.

Another man there made a metal that gets harder when an electrical current is run through it, and all too early six years had passed and he received the news that his cousin had died.

Winter in Caprica was cold but today seemed exceptionally so, he stood just away from his uncle as his father laid the last wreath on the coffin, from overhearing conversations he learned that it was an accident Zak had crashed. Though I did meet his fiancé nice woman totally distraught and from a look at her record she was an almost peerless pilot with only myself and Lee could get anywhere near her in skill, but she wasn't who I wanted to see.

"Uncle Bill"

He turned to face Jack and he looked broken though his face betrayed nothing his eyes were emotive enough for him to know

"Jack" he said in his husky baritone voice.

"It's good to see you again Uncle Bill" said Jack as he moved to hug him, he accepted albeit reluctantly they stood shoulder to shoulder looking down at the open grave and the coffin that held his cousin "I saw what Lee and Aunt Anna did and herd what they said"

"I imagine you did, I doubt anyone didn't" he said quietly

"It's not your fault"

"You are the only one besides Starbuck that says that"

"She seems a good lass"

"She would knock you head off if you called he that" he turned to Jack with a smile "how are you finding Colonial R&D Jack"

"It has its ups and downs"

"I imagine so"

"I'm designing weapons and reactors for the navy what's not to love"

Bill just grunted

"I have even found away to enhance the lethality of the Columbia class Battlestar"

"Really how"

"I have developed a new quad cannon that when installed would double the amount of weapons the class can come to bear"

"Networked I suppose" he said trying to get his mind off Zak

"Nope that's the thing I don't trust networked computers" this brought a small smile to his uncles face "I get that from you and dad"

"Good" he said

"How is the Valkyrie?"

"I wouldn't know they've moved me to the Galactica" he said looking at the young man "there going to retire the Galactica in five years" he said rubbing his eyes "and I am going to retire too"

"Started together leaving together"

"Yes"

"I could put a word in with one of the admirals make the Galactica a test bead for new technology"

"No" he said as he ran a hand through his hair "she deserves her rest, they'll make her a museum or something"

"If you need anything uncle let me know" Bill nodded and Jack left.

Upon his return to the R&D ship he threw himself into miniaturising the M/AM reactor the inertia dampeners and the shielding system he was determined to not let his cousin's death happen to any other family because of an accident.

Over the next year he spent time refining his inventions until they were ready to be put onto ships for field testing.

It would be another three years before he would see his uncle again.

(Six months before Cylon final attack on the 12 colonies)

Admiral Nagala sat and listened to the proposed retro fit for the Galactica

"So in conclusion sir, if we must turn her into a museum let us turn her into the most accurate external and internal sir, with my new construction bots we could have her done in about three months with no cost for labour and they can work night and day"

Nagala hadn't heard such an impassioned speech for years.

"Very well I will concede and approve on the retro fit for the Galactica, I also want a status on the new project Colonel Adama"

"I have checked the new system as asked sir and found this" he handed a computer pad to the Admiral; he looked at the mess of binary code and razing an eyebrow.

"What am I looking at?"

"That sir is the biggest cluster frak in recorded history in the making" the Admiral looked slightly shocked but bid him to continue "this is the largest back door into our systems since the cylons first hacked us"

"What"

"The CNP is a revolving door into our most secure networks and worst of all it's in over a third of ships in the fleet"

"My gods"

"I have had my boys in discreetly taking out what the idiots put in" he said to the Admirals relief "Picon Anchorage is fully secure as are the defence satellites, every ship that has docked has had the virus removed along with the CNP and my own program installed 82 Battlestars are safe"

"and your upgraded ships" he asked as he once again looked over the impressive offensive and defensive specifications the ships had.

"all ten ships are fully operational and no one at the ship barkers yard is any the wiser, we have, successfully tested all systems, these ships will give us the technological edge against the Cylons should they return witch I believe will be soon"

It was a pity that the only ten ships out of twelve could be upgraded.

"how soon?"

"the CNP instillation initiative was slated to take a half decade, that was four years ago, with that public announcement any Cylon spies would know that the final instillation on all Battlestars will be at the end of the year, that gives us twelve months at the most"

"if you were the Cylons when would you attack Colonel?"

"just to stick it to us humans I would attack on armistice day" he responded quickly "but then again I am an emotional human"

"that is six months away" he said as he grabbed a piece of paper "you are here by ordered to retro fit the Galactica to her original specifications, I want her battle ready at the drop of a hat, add whatever you feel you need to accomplish this" he handed the paper to Jack "get to it Commander" he said as he threw two small golden insignia, Jack stared at the golden diamonds with a star burst etched into them.

"aye aye sir" he said closing his fist around the small golden ranks

"one more thing Commander" he through a box at him it was a small like the kind of box that you would have if you were giving an engagement ring to your beloved, he saluted and left fiddling with his new insignia whilst putting the box in his pocket, taking the old ones off and pinning the new ones on. He passed saluting NCOs and crewmen; he made it back to his raptor where his pilot was waiting.

"another promotion sir" said the young man with a knowing smile

"stow it Alderman" he said as he got aboard the Lieutenant smiled slightly and bit his tong as he re-entered the ship

"Take me to these coordinates" he said as he handed over a bit of paper, the Lieutenant nodded as the ship took off, than as soon as the ship was back in the void it jumped with a flash of light.

In the back of the raptor Jack sat with an old fleet book in his hands, it was the schematics for the Columbia class Battlestar, the original schematics with all variants and there she was BSG-75 the Galactica with all 50 heavy guns and all 1000 anti-fighter guns, she was beautiful and would be again.

"Raptor 376" came a distorted voice over fleet comm. "this is Galactica CIC you are cleared for landing in starboard flight pod"

"Raptor 376 reads you Galactica"

"This is starboard flight pod to Raptor 376 you are cleared to land hands on speed 105 call the ball"

"Roger that Galactica I have the ball"

The ship glided past the Galactica upside down before flipping over and entering the pod and slowing to an easy stop, before turning about with its landing skids deployed onto a lift.

"Skids down and maglocks engaged" then the lift engaged and the Raptor was taken down into a pressurised section

"Welcome aboard 376" came the voice from the CIC

"Thanks Galactica CIC"

The Raptor was pulled by a heavy lifter into the maintenance bay, followed by two crew men and what looked to be the chief of engineers, he was a tallish man skinny too, with black hair and brown eyes he was pail and his uniform was a bright orange with luminous patches, and it was covered in grime a testament of the hard working nature of this deck chief after all not many chiefs got their hands dirty these days.

As Jack exited the Raptor the chief stood at attention and saluted when Jack saluted he stood at ease

"Good morning sir I am chief Tyrol I will be your crew chief for your stay with us"

"Good morning chief I am Commander Jack Adama" that sent a bolt through the man

"It's a pleasure to meat you sir" he said as the crew around him shuddered to a stop at hearing his name.

Jack took a moment to look around at the bay

"I must say I am impressed with your work Chief" he said with a smile, the chief stood even taller at the praise from a relative of his commander "I am to understand that you are helping the Galactica become a museum"

"Yes sir" he said with undisguised regret

"Good" he said the chief looked stunned for a moment "but as of right now all work to turn the Battlestar Galactica into a Fraking museum stops now" this stunned the crew and Tyrol couldn't help but smile slightly, Jack pulled a letter out of his pocket and began to read "the Colonial Battlestar Galactica by order of fleet Admiral Nagala is to be returned to its original specification and used as a working museum, as an example of Colonial history in action" he handed the letter to Tyrol who looked at the letter nodded and handed it back "the supplies and special equipment shall arrive in the next few days including, eight wings of Mk2 and Mk3 vipers along with one flight of the experimental Mk8 space superiority vipers" he rounded on Tyrol "I hope you are up to the challenge crew chief"

"Yes, yes sir" he stammered

"Good now if you will excuse me I need to meet with Uncle Bill" the crew seemed slightly put out that he would be so informal when addressing their commander but as he was family they let it slide.

Jack knew the layout of the Galactica like he knew the back of his hand, as he navigated the long snaking corridors leading to the CIC; he nodded to the crew man at the door who opened it for him.

"Commander on deck" he shouted making the crew of the CIC jump none more so than his Uncle who spun around to address the man that had dared to make the Commander of a Battlestar jump. He was not prepared to see his only nephew

"Commander William Adama, by order of Fleet Admiral Nagala you are here by promoted to the rank of Admiral Congratulations" he said as he pulled out the small box from his pocket and handed it to him then took his other hand and shook it, he seemed to be stunned for a moment then rallied

"Jack what are you doing here"

"Just a second Uncle I have one last duty then we can get down to family business" he said as he pulled an envelope and handed it to Admiral Adama, he opened the sealed letter and took the letter out, he then pulled his glasses out of his breast pocket and put them on his eyes danced along the page before coming to the end, he folded the letter and placed it in his pocket and then nodded.

"My office Jack" he said leading his nephew to his office just off of the CIC.

William Adama sat heavily behind his desk, for a moment he didn't move but then he grabbed his glasses and threw onto his desk lightly, he pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed before leaning back in his chair.

"Did you know what Nagala wrote in that letter?"

"No" Jack said

Bill Adama pulled the letter from his pocket; he then put his glasses back on and began to read

(The letter)

"To Admiral Adama of the Battlestar Galactica.

Well Bill it seems you were right, that nephew of yours has found a virus in our computers all our computers, if it was actually activated it they would have whipped us out in a matter of hours, but your nephew has put a pay to that, we will fight and defend our worlds against them when they come, he has predicted that they will attack us within a year I am more of the opinion that it will be sooner. I can't raise alert status without tipping our hand to any Cylon spies and more than likely accelerating there timetable for attack. So I have had R&D take apart the CNP and install your nephew's new program.

He has been ordered to return Galactica to speck and use his initiative he will more than likely install his new toys on your ship, they should make the Galactica more powerful than any three Mercury class Battlestars, it already has for the Atlantia,

Bill we need you and all older commanders now more than ever, I'm bringing the old boys back to fight again these new pups can't take a shit without a computer telling them how and I need men that know what it means to fight, fight and fight a hopeless battle and fraking win.

Good luck Bill you're going to need it

Nagala.

(Letter end)

The two sat there in silence for a moment, before the Admiral spoke

"I won't have a networked computer on this ship" he spoke with conviction and authority

"That uncle would be sacrilege" he said as he pulled out the fleet book "this is how Galactica was and this is how she will be again" he showed him the picture of the Galactica as she was when she was first launched "but with better weapons and armour, energy weapons and shields that can take multiple heavy nuclear weapons hits and shrug them off, a power core to that won't need to be refuelled ever, an FTL system that will allow Galactica to calculate a jump with pin point accuracy"

"That sounds pretty extensive"

"Yep and don't get me started on the engines"

"When do you begin?"

"Now" he smiled


	2. Chapter 2

Bill Adama stormed down one of the many corridors within the Battlestar that had become his home headed towards the starboard flight pod with murder on his mind, it had been years since he had been this angry and that was because of a Job, but this was absolutely unacceptable and was would be damned sure that his nephew heard him loud and fracking clear he would not have robots on his ship ever the only time that there had been was when the fracking toasters crashed either on purpose or unintentionally on the Galactica's hull, but now there were robots scuttling all over the outer hull and even a few whirring about inside the walls and all over his CnC, He had to forcibly restrain himself from shooting the little crab spider things as they went about their work and what was almost as frustrating was having to deal with surly naval personnel who complained relentlessly about them as well.

He had ships jumping in and out of the system with supplies and equipment and they had to be squared away paperwork had to be signed and he was sure now that the greatest threat to the colonies was paperwork and he had it up to his ears with the felgercarb, retirement could not come sooner, but right now he had a wayward family member and subordinate to rain in, and it didn't help that they were expecting the heavy cannons to arrive and with that allot of heavy munitions the Admiral seemed hell bent on getting the old girl back and ready to fight at the drop of a hat even his wife Rear Admiral and Military attaché to the Quorum of Twelve Miranda Nagala seemed driven for the same goal, But not this was Bill reasoned it was the hand of man that had built the Galactica and he wanted the hand of man to rebuild her, but he knew this to be impossible and that added to his already frustrated situation.

As he approached the flight pod he could hear the little robots working and being directed by the loud commanding voice of Jack

"Chief Tyrol prepare a raptor I need to inspect the external armour and the old gun mounts"

"Aye Commander" replied Tyrol

over the past few weeks Tyrol had been the rock for the engineering crews, and he was the most dedicated to the restoration of the Galactica spending days without sleep and hours with Jack discussing the work and what was more of a priority, and Jack had found it both fun and enlightening talking to the man as having the blueprints was one thing and having practical experience was another, the engineers had added and moved things over the course of her military lifespan and had not updated the engineering book to reflect that.

As Adama entered he caught sight of a dirty and grease stained Jack and about fifty of his construction robots welding and wiring all along the walls of the flight pods main hanger and as he went down the ladder into the Pods main section what he saw took his breath away they had reinstalled the viper storage racks and the crane system for shunting and moving the vipers into launch position he hadn't seen these in years not since he was a young very green nugget.

"Jack!" he called as his nephew was about to climb into the Raptor "a word"

"Sure Admiral" he smiled "step into my Office" indicated to the inside of the Raptor to which he nodded before grabbing a spare helmet and joining his nephew in the cramped confines of the Raptor, it would be best if he said this out of sight and earshot of the inlisted men.


	3. Chapter 3

The two men didn't speak until the raptor had left the hanger and them where alone together for the first time since Zack's funeral, and Jack relished the silence for the first time since coming to the Galactica, the whole time he on board he was working he didn't take a day for himself he had wanted to get the ship finished before his uncle retired, he wanted the old girl to be at her best when he left her.

"Jack we need to talk" Admiral Adama's voice brokered no argument and Jack could tell he was upset

"sure unc anything you need"

"what I need Jack is for you to stop these infernal robots from scuttling around and scaring the crew and myself half to death" Jack was shocked at the emotion in his uncle's voice "why do you have so many of the Fracking things all over my ship"

Jack took a moment to respond having to pad this out very gently as possible

"I would not have brought all of my constructors had I not discovered the dangerous bordering on criminal flaw in the Galactica's superstructure"

"what"

"her bones are rotten there are microfractures running through almost every part of her superstructure, several of the connectors of the armour plates are also damaged and I have a sneaking suspicion that the rattle that I have been hearing in the engineering is actually a damaged tilum flow regulator that has the potential to be a catastrophic failure" he sighed "several of the gun mounts for the AA emplacements have been damaged when pulling them out and they just left them with an armoured plate covering where they where, the water purification system has a damaged scrubber, the manoeuvring thrusters have been miss timed to its making the finer manoeuvres the ship should be capable of is allot more difficult, the internal tram system has been improperly removed and there is surface level rust, or at least I hope surface level rust in there, and I have a plethora of smaller internal system damage that conventional crews cannot even touch, and I also have thirty-two heavily modified main turrets coming in the next few days and over two hundred AA guns coming a few weeks after that and the remaining armour plates that are coming tomorrow" he listed all of the needed repairs and all of the issues he had encountered "so as you can see I need all of them, the constructors are the only things keeping us on schedule and it seems that every day I wake up I discover a new issue that could have been handled in the yard during construction but because they where rushed out like they where none of it was done, and I can understand that the during the war it would have been difficult but after the war it should have been handled, this is criminal negligence of the highest order and I have submitted a report to NCIS to look into the issue as soon as they are able"

"she's that bad" the Admiral sat unsure how to respond to the long list of issues with his beloved ship.

"Yes, I have most of the constructors working round the clock to fix the issues but more keep cropping up"

"I'm sorry I didn't know that it was that bad"

"conservatively if the war where to start tomorrow the Galactica could fight for a year with multiple blue books jumps before she broke her back and would be of no use to anyone even as scrap"

"my Gods"

The two sat in silence as Jack went about his work visually checking the barbettes for any deformation or damage before returning to the hanger Jack had to allot of work to do and was pushing himself hard to do it, and as Bill Adama sat in his office reading paperwork he considered himself lucky that his nephew was as dedicated as he was.


	4. Chapter 4

Son of Metis

Battlestar Galactica

the Galactica was being swarmed by hundreds of small drones, each one carrying an armour plate and attaching it like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle on the hull, it was as if the Galactica was a gigantic metal beehive being swarmed by worker bees, all of them being directed by the raptor floating above them.

Jack spent most of his time going over the reports from his constructors and writing out requisition forms, and he was quite happy to discover the tramline surface rust was just surface rust, and with the proper tools, equipment and sandblasting equipment the engineering crew managed to clean the entire line, as well as replacing the maglifts that allowed the tram to work. The whole system was designed to allow pilots or crew to travel from the forward 'head' section of the ship to the flight to the flight pods allowing for a drastically reduced deployment time.

he had also found out much to his relief that the rattle was keeping him awake at night worrying over was simply coming from an improperly secured fuel pump apparently the crew chief at the last yard layover had not tightened down, with that improperly secured pump the fuel that the Galactica was pumping from its tanks into its reactors was not unevenly firing putting more strain on one reactor to power the ship more than the other. During Galacticas last overhaul at Picon fleet HQ this should have been spotted and rectified but apparently the crew chief responsible had not done simple cursory glance over, this was dereliction of duty, fraud criminal negligence and dereliction of duty.

Jack spent the rest of his time filing complaints against various yard crews and chiefs as well as supply depots for gross dereliction of duty in the maintenance and repair of a Colonial Battlestar a charge that has a minimum penalty of 25 years in prison and a maximum penalty of death by hanging. The scandal alone would shame the fleet and make sure that it will not happen again.

Jack had sent a few constructors in to secure fuel pump sparing the human crews for the internal Tram system and the viper launching systems that had been removed in the Port flight pod when the gift shop was being constructed. Jack was overseeing the delicate process re-armouring Galactica's hull with the ablative armour when he received a communication from CIC Comm. Officer Dee ordering him to return immediately to the hangar and report to Adml Adama.

(Galactica CIC)

The CIC was perhaps the most busy section of the Battlestar outside of it flight pods as it was the brain of the whole ship and housed everything from communications to internal D&C at the centre of the CIC is the tactical readout where the commander and XO keep abreast of all the information as it becomes available to them as Jack entered through the vacuum sealed door he made his way to this pedestal.

"Commander Adama reporting is ordered" Jack snapped to attention gave a crisp salute. Adml Adama and CO Tigh both turned to greet the young officer before the Adml picked up a folded piece of paper that appeared to be a printout form communication.

"Jack, you have a communiqué from Fleet FADM Nangala" the Adml handed him the folded printout "It's coded for your eyes only" Jack read over the communiqué before pocketing the paper and straightening his tunic.

"Adml can we talk in privet please" the Adml nodded sharply before taking office glasses and inserting them into his breast pocket and leading Jack out of the door and to his quarters Jack sat onto the couch before he began.

"You didn't read the message?" He asked reluctantly knowing the answer but wanting to be completely sure.

"no," he said as he joined Jack sitting opposite form him "it was coded your eyes only and given the level of encryption we had to use to decode it I didn't want to spend a few years after retirement in hack."

"Apparently the President Adar liked the idea of using the Galactica as a living museum so much that he has signed the secretary of education to oversee the last part of the retrofit, she should be here within two weeks for inspection." Bill Adama was notorious for hating political BS, so much so that the Admiralty made sure that he was far away from any such situation as to prevent him from answering questions from political suits honestly and causing offence. "we've been ordered to meet with fleet command in two days" he continued "apparently my Battlestar is ready for me to take command and they want the ceremony and shake down cruse finished as soon as possible so I can get back to finishing the retrofit."

"Your first command" his uncle Bill smiled with pride, "you always remember your first command, no other ship will ever measure up to it and every ship you command after will always be measured against it" he clapped a strong hand on Jacks back before brining him into a one armed hug "I'm guessing Valkyrie Class right as I understand it the Monitor has finished construction and seems to be a good ship"

"No," jack said a bit too quickly "no, I made a request of the Admiralty and they saw fit to grant me an Artemis class light Battlestar." He said grinning

"I thought the retired the last of that class halfway through the last war," William Adama had served in the last war and was the best of the ace pilots in the fleet during the war, he remembered that the Artemis class had been removed from service when the Jupiter class Battlestar came into full production as well as the new Valkyrie class had made the role of a light Battlestar almost completely superfluous to requirements.

"they did." Jack said, "but I found a few at the Sagittarian 'mothball' fleet yard the one that was in the best condition was used along with two that had been mostly disassembled where used as parts vessels." Jack had smiled to himself finding those gems was a high point for him "it was a thank you from the Admiralty for bringing down costs in the fleets overall fuel consumption, as well as increasing overall fuel efficiency by thirty five percent" Jack smiled as his uncle went to the bureau behind his desk and pulled out a bottle of Ambrosia, he could practically feel the smile radiating from his uncle as he poured out to drinks into crystal glasses. "I think Adml Cole was practically tap dancing on his desk when he found out that the amount of money I saved the fleet was being pumped into his War star project, I think he wants me to marry his oldest daughter". The Adml chuckled deeply before he spoke.

"You're entering an elite corps Jack" he said as he turned and handed Jack one of the classes "there have been only 200 commanders in charge of Battlestar's and only 120 in active service today." They toasted Jacks new posting tapping there glasses together and allowing ring of the glass to sound before drinking "welcome to the best and worst posting in the fleet." He chuckled

"Thanks uncle Bill." He smiled as he placed the glass on the table, on top of a coaster that depicted the emblem of the Galactica "the Admiralty are giving me an experienced command crew and staff to ensure smooth running they want to give me experience in command of a Battlestar and then a Battlestar group before promoting me out of the line and onto a desk."

"its strange that they would just reactivate an Artemis class just for you to gain enough command hours for a promotion, what will happen after your promoted"

"the Nova will be under my permanent command like Nagala and the Atlantia where I go it goes with me"

"I Understand" said the Adml knowingly "tell me how goes the re-armouring of the Hull"

"we have finished the forward Dorsal plating and are half way through the forward Ventral section unfortunately the barbets in the aft engineering section are damaged too severely to be used without extended period in dry dock and the Admiralty are not willing to put the expense and time into a ship that is being used as a living museums so I have had the plates restored, and after review of the rest of the Barbets I have determined that only a four on the dorsal forward section can be restored and four on the ventral forward section." David said "I have also been able to restore 600 of the point defence guns, and I have installed my new plasma cannons on the 'Jaw' of the forward command section but because of their kick back I've had to lock and secure them into the forward position only."


End file.
